Grandman Triathlon 2012 Race Report

     This past weekend I competed in the Grandman Triathlon with my parents and lots of friends from Pensacola, Fairhope, and other surrounding areas. It was a sprint race consisting of a 600 yard swim, 18 mile bike, and 5k run. Friday evening, me, Matt, and my parents drove over to Fairhope excited about the next morning. It was only going to be my second and my parents' first race of the season. We stopped by the race venue, my parents wanted to check it out since they had never done the race before, then we headed over to our hotel. It was getting late by then. so we pretty much went straight to bed.
    After a night of on and off again sleep, which is pretty typical for me when I'm sleeping in a strange place,  I woke up excited, but nervous to see how the day would unfold.  We got over to the race site at about 6am, were able to find a really good parking place, and headed down the big hill to the transition area. We picked up our chips, got body marked, and racked our bikes.
The weather was great, pretty low humidity and a little cooler than it had been. I was even a little cold getting into the water to warm-up. A little bit before 7am, the race director started getting everyone organized to start the race. They did the swim start different than in past years, they used a time trial start where they started people one at a time in three second intervals. when you got to start in relation to everyone else was dependent on what you predicted your swim time to be. I was number 128, so didn't have to wait too long for my turn to go.
The bay where we swim is notoriously shallow, so I started out running in the water, then did a mix of dolphin diving and running, and finally was able to swim. I actually felt pretty good on the swim and was pretty happy with where I came out. There's a decent run from the swim exit to transition and once I reached my bike i quickly got my shoes on and headed out.
I recently purchased some race wheels and I was excited to see how they felt. They were so smooth and the handling felt great. The course was not an easy one though. You would think after having done this race so many times I would be used to it, but for some reason this time seemed worse than usual. It's got some rolling hills and there was a little bit of wind. Not long into it, my legs were burning and I was just hoping that my legs wouldn't be too spent before I got to the run. I was able to pass a few girls throughout the ride and was passed by fellow Team MPI athlete Barbara Kerby (who went on to win 2nd overall...beast) around mile 5 or 6. The thing I didn't like about the way this race was organized was that with the time trial start, it was hard to get an idea of where I was in relation to some of the other competitors.
     Coming out of T2, first thing, we have to run up a big, steep hill. Once to the top I felt like junk and was not looking forward to the run. However, after the first mile, I started getting into a nice rhythm and felt a little better. I really didn't know what to expect of my run since I've really only been running for a few weeks since coming off a stress fracture followed by another layoff due to tendonitis. With that being said I was happy to find out that my run time was only about 20 seconds slower than last year's time and I had the 2nd fastest female run time over all (fastest female run time was 5 seconds faster than me).
I ended up getting fourth overall female and first in my age group. My parents did great too!! My mom got to race on her new bike and finished 4th in her age group and my dad was able to complete the whole race even though he hadn't planned on running since he has been out of running since September because of a foot injury. We are continuing to pray for God's healing there so he can get back to what he loves doing!! Overall, we had a great trip and as always it was so fun to see so many friends out there racing, especially the ones that don't get to see as often. I have to say though that the best part of the day was getting back home to hang out with my niece, nephews, and sister and her husband who decided to extend their trip an extra day, can't get enough of those little guys. We finished off the day with homemade pizza and playing in the pool.